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Outrageously delicious, Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies are New York’s number one cookie. They are chewy, gooey, and rich! The best time to make them is around the holidays.
You can take the girl out of New York City, but you can’t take New York City out of the girl. Since I now live 3000 miles away, I decided to bake the copycat version of Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies are NYC’s number one cookie!
The original Levain Bakery cookie recipe hasn’t yet been released, however I found numerous copycat versions online. I made slight alterations to come with a gooey, chewy, soft, chunky, and perfectly sweet chocolate chip walnut cookie. Another favorite chocolate chip cookie is my New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookie which are so soft and chewy.
How many servings does this recipe make?
You’ll end up with 8 super-indulgent cookies, but I can assure you they’re super-rich and decadent. I personally can’t eat an entire cookie in one sitting, bur rather half if I’m hungry.
I recommend splitting a cookie into halves or thirds because they’re really rich.
In my opinion, this recipe makes 16-24 servings depending on the crowd you’re feeding.
Can I freeze the cookie dough for later?
Absolutely! And you should! I can’t imagine baking all 8 cookies at once.
Freeze the tennis ball-shaped cookie dough – cover each one in plastic wrap and freeze.
When you’re ready for your next cookie, place the cookie dough in the fridge 12 hours prior to baking.
Bake as usual and your cookie will taste incredible.
Tips on making Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies:
- Levain cookies don’t contain vanilla extract, you don’t need it.
- This recipe calls for cake flour and all-purpose flour. If you don’t have cake flour, just use this substitute:
1 cup of cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose flour minus 2 tbsp all-purpose flour plus 2 tbsp cornstarch. - I used 2 cups of chocolate chips and 2 cups of walnuts. I prefer more walnuts to chocolate, hence going forward I will use 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and 2 1/2 cups of walnuts.
- Instead of semisweet chocolate chips, I used bittersweet chocolate chips resulting in a less sweet cookie.
- In general, I prefer my baked goods not painfully sweet, thus these cookies are just right using bittersweet chips and less sugar.
- Make sure you use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar. Dark brown sugar contains more molasses so use light brown sugar.
- The cookie dough should be refrigerated for about 12 hours before baking. This results in a chewier and tastier cookie.
- The cookie batter makes 8 large cookies. The cookie dough should be split evenly into 8 balls that are the size of a tennis ball. Alternatively, you may measure each cookie dough ball where each one should be 6 ounces in weight.
- I baked 4 cookies and froze the remainder of my batter shaped in tennis size balls. The next time I baked these cookies, I placed my frozen cookie dough into the refrigerator for 12 hours prior to baking.
- Levain Bakery cookies are incredibly rich. My husband and I split one cookie, and we were both quite full. Although the result is 8 large cookies, these cookies can easily be shared between 16-24 people.
Levain Bakery chocolate chip walnut cookies are:
Indulgent
Decadent
Mouthwatering
Gooey
Delicious
Perfect for Christmas
How to make Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies step by step?
Prep
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Chop walnuts. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. Cube cold butter.
Make the Batter
1. In a large bowl, combine the butter, light brown sugar, and white sugar.
2. Using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together until well combined. This process will take 4 minutes. Start at a slow speed and gradually speed up.
3. Here is the result.
4. Now add 1 egg at a time.
5. Mix well until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
6. Add the flour in 3 batches.
7. Combine the flour and the butter/sugar mixture. Do NOT over mix.
8. Here is the result.
9. Add chocolate chips and walnuts.
10. Fold them in and mix well. It’s an arm workout.
11. Result.
12. Now using a large ice-cream scoop.
13. Scoop the cookie batter onto a plastic wrap. You want to form 8 large balls that resemble the size of a tennis ball. Yes, tennis ball. Alternatively, you can weigh them and form 8 balls. Each ball should be 6 ounces.
14. Wrap the cookie dough balls with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for 12 hours.
15. The next day, place the cookie batter onto a baking tray. Make sure the cookie dough is at least 2 inches apart so they can spread. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. I baked my cookies for 19 minutes exactly. Do NOT overbake them so they remain gooey. Note: I baked 4 cookies, and froze the remaining 4 cookies for another time.
16. Once the cookies are out of the oven, LET THEM COOL FOR 10 MINUTES. They will firm up.
17. Indulge. Seriously, outrageously good.
Pin & Enjoy!
More Holiday Desserts!
- Cranberry Orange Bundt with White Chocolate Glaze
- Cranberry Orange Cheesecake
- Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies
- The New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fudgy Cranberry Walnut Brownies
- Cranberry Orange Cake
- Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup unsalted grass-fed cold butter, cubed, I like Kerrygold
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar, don't use dark, use light
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 organic eggs
- 1 1/2 cups cake flour*
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips**, I like Guittard 63%
- 2 cups walnuts, chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Chop walnuts. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Cube cold butter.
Make the Batter
- In a large bowl, combine the butter, light brown sugar, and white sugar.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the ingredients together until well combined. This process will take 4 minutes. Start on slow speed and gradually speed up.
- Here is the result.
- Now add 1 egg at a time.
- Mix well until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add the flour in 3 batches.
- Combine the flour and the butter/sugar mixture. Do NOT over mix.
- Here is the result.
- Add the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Fold and mix them in. It's an arm workout.
- Result.
- Now using a large ice-cream scoop.
- Scoop the cookie batter onto a plastic wrap. You want to form 8 large balls that resemble the size of a tennis ball. Yes, tennis ball. Alternatively, you can weigh them and form 8 balls. Each ball should be 6 ounces.
- Wrap the cookie dough balls with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours.
- The next day, place the cookie batter onto a baking tray. Make sure the cookie dough are at least 2 inches apart so they can spread. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes. I baked my cookies for 19 minutes exactly. Do NOT overbake them so they remain gooey. Note: I baked 4 cookies, and froze the remaining 4 cookies for another time.
- Once the cookies are out of the oven, LET THEM COOL FOR 10 MINUTES. They will firm up.
- Indulge. Seriously, outrageously good.
I tried Levain cookies and has been the best cookie that I baked so far. Also first recipe that I tried from your page . Thanks for sharing such detailed recipe with no room for going wrong . 🙏🏻🥰
Hi. I don’t have access to all purpose flour where I live. What would be the substitute?
Thanks
Hi – not sure where you live – but all-purpose flour is white flour (maida in Hindi).
For cake flour, follow the substitution that I provided in this recipe.
Hope this helps!
Hi, does the outside of the cookie stay crunchy for the next day? if not, how do you reheat them without the inside getting dry? thanks!
HI Lyn. This cookie isn’t crunchy… it’s soft and chewy. I just microwave it for 10-15 seconds the next day if you want it warm, but it’s not crunchy. Hope that helps.
Love this recipe! If you freeze the dough… do you thaw in the fridge the night before or do you just put it straight in the oven? Do you adjust the baking time if frozen?
HI Mariam. No, you can just bake the frozen dough at the same temperature. It will work. Please let me know how it goes. You can test this out with 1-2 cookies before baking all of them. Hope this helps. Thanks.
Hi,
Do you know if convection ovens (with 2 fans) are good to bake cookies commercially? I recently bought convection oven then I saw most bakeries use conventional. Do you know why they do that and if it makes any difference on the final product?
Thank you
Hi Maha. The food cooks faster in a convection oven and it saves energy. Although I do have a convection oven, I don’t bake on convection mode since I’m providing recipes for the general public. I would be careful with baking these cookies in a convection oven mode only because baking is a science. if you have the option of using regular bake, i would opt for that. I would try the convection mode perhaps with roasting veggies so you can monitor the food. Just my 2 cents. 🙂
Can I omit the walnuts due to a nut allergy in the family?
Hi, you may. Just note, I would leave the chocolate chip amount as is. Omitting walnuts will definitely make the cookies a little sweeter since they offset some of the sweetness.
Loved these cookies! So soft and not too sweet. Refrigerating the dough overnight is definitely key!
Hi! Do you think it would be refrigerated for 9/10 hours instead of 12 hours?
That’s fine. 9-10 hours is okay too.
Enjoyed baking these, and binging on them EVEN MORE! <3
Hi Nisha , is there a substitute for eggs I can use
HI Sonal. I haven’t tried this, but you can try yogurt, applesauce, or a flax egg (1 tbsp powder flax + 3 tbsp water).
I’m not sure how it’ll turn out, but google these ideas and see what you like. Let me know. 🙂
I couldn’t find unsalted butter can I make these with salted butter and just omit the salt?
Hi Suzie. I think you can do that, but I haven’t tried it myself. I googled this question and many said you can replace salted with unsalted. As you said, I would omit the salt. Let me know. 🙂
These came out well for me with the salted butter and I omitting the additional salt. The only thing is I almost left out the baking powder and baking soda! When I was reading through the recipe there wasn’t a step referencing putting them in just “flour mixture”. I figured it out after adding the initial bit of flour but may be beneficial to some to modify that bit!
With everyone home during quarantine, I have found myself cooking and baking a lot more than usual. My sister in law was craving some homemade chocolate chips so I decided to try the Levain inspired cookies and they were such a hit! Super soft and chewy. All the chocolate chips melted in your mouth. It’s not too sweet either which made it even more delicious! thank you so much for sharing with us! We loved them!
I made this cookie for my daughters anniversary and she and my son in law absolutely loved it! They live in New York and are a big fan of Levain Bakery and they said this was so similar to those cookies! Thanks for the great recipe.
Thanks for the recipe Nisha! It was easy to follow and make as well. I froze them too! 😉
Can you please clarify about the substitution for cake flour. If the recipe calls for 1 1/12 cake flour do I measure 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, take out 3 tbsp of flour and then add 3 tbsp of cornstarch?
Hi Morgan. That’s exactly right!
I provided a substitution because I know most people don’t have cake flour.
Hope that helps. 🙂
Absolutely love this recipe! Shared the cookies with the entire family, including our grandparents from India who don’t typically eat sweets, and it was a hit! This is probably one of my favorite cookies I’ve ever had! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Hi! I just made this and the dough is in the fridge. Do I pop in oven straight from fridge after 12 hours? Or do I need to bring it to room temperature.
Thanks!
Hi. Pop it straight in the oven from the fridge.
My problem with this recipe is that you’ve gone and ruined most other walnut and chocolate chip cookies for me now. We absolutely loved it. The texture came out great, it wasn’t too sweet, and it’s a pretty simple recipe as well. Thanks so much for sharing.
omg.. i read the first sentence and I was so sad. And read the second sentence and I got it. No problem! I’m so glad you liked it. xoxo
Omg these are so SO good! Thank you for sharing a not-so-crazily sweet recipe that brings back fond memories of Levain. The hubs absolutely loved his birthday treat!!
Tried these on Christmas Day and they are absolutely perfect and delicious! These cookies are definitely big enough to be shared with at least two people. My dad and I shared, but my brother indulged the entire cookie. I was quite surprised, but then not at the same time because they are SO GOOD!
We made these and they were so yummy!! They are definitely meant to share
Thanks Krishna. Yes, they are definitely meant to share. So glad you enjoyed it. xoxo
Bake them in the middle rack in oven?
Yes, that works. 🙂